The psychology of spending £300,000 on a parking space is of some interest

A parking space is up for sale for £300,000. No mod cons, no period features, just a rectangle of asphalt with room for a game of table tennis. The psychology of spending £300,000 on a parking space, even in Hyde Park Gardens, London, is of some interest. It is true that the sum might buy a “luxury” flat in central Birmingham, but a householder in Hyde Park Gardens has already exhibited a disinclination to live in central Birmingham. If the spot were freehold, it would not really cost anything at all, since, once the market is established, it could be sold again for the same amount or more. But the sale is for a lease of 91 years. That may work out at only £9 a day, the price of two or three pints, but much of the diminishing benefit would be enjoyed by one’s heirs. Still, the temptation would remain to take the Underground instead and use the £300,000 to buy something nice.